Technology company Auto-Graphics has partnered with publishing platform FastPencil to bring FastPencil's book publishing engine Library Management Platform to libraries around the country. Library members will have the ability to use FastPencil’s platform to write, design, publish and sell books in print and digital formats directly through their local libraries.
"We are excited about the prospect of changing the way people view the role of their libraries and we believe that self publishing presents just that opportunity,” said Robert Brown, executive v-p of Auto-Graphics. "Libraries can now provide this resource to any would-be author, allowing them to create, publish and distribute their musings along-side the world's finest authors in either a traditional or ebook format. Participating libraries now have the opportunity to redefine their role as true purveyors of content by delivering new avenues to educate and advance the greater community through the writings of anyone, regardless of their social or economic status."
The Library Management Platform will provide libraries with an opportunity to offset some of their operating costs and will allow patrons to produce content from word one to the distribution stage. Brown and FastPencil CEO and founder Steve Wilson are opening the technology beyond local libraries, to include research and law libraries as well as corporate libraries. Currently, there are talks with four state-level libraries, to be finalized this fall. FastPencil’s platform, which provides aspiring and experienced authors with the technology to publish any quantity of books, will expand into more of a content management tool for libraries, said Wilson, growing beyond a self-publishing platform into something that will hopefully foster a marketplace within participating libraries.
